SENSATIONAL TRIAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 256, 30 October 1933, Page 7

SENSATIONAL TRIAL.

ACID BATH MURDER CASE. (Received I.GO p.m.) PARIS, October 29. There was further startling evidence at the trial at Aix-en-Provence, in which Philomene and Catherine Schmidt, German sisters, and Georges Sarret, an Italian domiciled in France, are jointly charged with the disposal of two victims in sulphuric acid baths, and the subsequent collection of insurance. A chemist employed at a Marseilles pharmacy declared that in 1925 a man named Garrette, who had been .a lover of Philomene, had access to poison, of which sufficient to kill, 50 ounces, was found to be missing. The prosecution produced documents allegedly signed by Deltreuil, Catherine's former husband, proving Deltreuil to be a chemical inventor and able to obtain ! various acids.

Catherine's counsel declared that the documents were forgeries. The prosecution also read letters from the mother of Magali Herbin, one of the victims, revealing that three months after the consumptive girl's death, Catherine wrote ostensibly on behalf of Herbin stating, "Our dear little friend is unable to write owing to an injured finger." Catherine declared that Sai-ret dictated the letters.